Communal Kitchen: Sweet Date and Nut Energy Balls.

I love recipes that don’t require you to be exact and allow plenty of room for creativity. This one is great because you can pretty much swap out any of the ingredients and still end up with something REALLY tasty! You don’t like almonds? No problem! Substitute hazelnuts. You are allergic to peanut butter? How about some almond butter instead? Dried cranberries too tart for you? Why not try golden raisins? The combinations are endless!

I first started making these because I never had time for breakfast in the morning. I would always end up starving on my way to work and my stomach and wallet can only handle so many sausage, egg and cheese sandwiches. Thankfully, these little energy balls are packed with some serious protein, fiber and healthy fats, which means they have some "staying power". They are the perfect thing to help stave off those hunger pains.

You will need a decent food processor for this recipe.

Ingredients:

1 cup pitted dates

1 cup raw almonds

½ cup dried cranberries

2 tbsp chia or flax seeds

1 heaping tbsp peanut butter

½ cup minced coconut flakes

Coconut oil or any light flavored oil ( You’ll need this so your hands don’t get sticky while rolling the balls)

Directions:

1) Take all of your ingredients and add to your food processor. Blend until you have a pretty consistent rough chop.

2) Take half your mixture and put it the the side (This isn’t 100% necessary, but I like mine to be a blend of coarse and minced) Take the other half and blend for another 15-20 seconds or until really fine.

3) Put a little coconut oil on your hands before you start working with the mixture. It’s really sticky, so the oil will help keep it from sticking to your hands and fingers.

4) Roll a series of energy balls until you use up all your mixture. For this batch, I was able to make 13. Make them as big or small as you like.

5) As a nice finish, I like to roll each one in a bowl of shredded coconut. Depending on how sticky they are, you might need to press the coconut into them.

6) For storage, I like to keep them in a tupperware container in the freezer, but you can certainly keep them in the fridge.

And that’s it! Only 20 minutes of work for a weeks worth of sweet and healthy snacks.